[NR] Time On His Hands - Chapter 485 (Patreon)

The strawberry blond lady bigfoot guild official sighs, “Though I don’t blame you for your outlook. Since you made it to the end of the ninth floor, your group shouldn’t have had too much trouble completing the dungeon. If not for the nonsense, that is.”

Jason nods, “A bit of a disappointment, that. What can you tell me?”

The lady shrugs, “In theory we should have things fixed up soon enough. However, I wouldn’t put my hopes on it. In fact, if you didn’t have a quest for this place, I’m authorized to provide free teleports to an equivalent dungeon.”

Jason, “I suspect my group’s rogue type will want another go at the trap, if possible. Though we do have to wait a few days for her to return so there is that.”

The bigfoot lady, “I’m told the eta on a fix is a week from now so there is a chance if you rush the early floors. I don’t advise that though, for two reasons. One is, of course, that you’ll have to wait another five days if someone dies.

“The second is I doubt this will be fixed within a week. Maybe the local help would have believed the company line. However, I’m outside help that was called in to assist with processing people.

“While rare, this does happen and my guess is that if they’re quick about it, we’re looking at a full month. That is mostly because they’re already offering free teleports. Those don’t come cheap and if it was only going to be a week, there is no need for it.”

Jason shrugs, “I’ll relay that to my team. Anyway, when did this start? My one friend has her ear to the ground for stuff like this and heard nothing.”

The bigfoot lady, “Officially? Yesterday is when we started getting reports. Of course, the reality of it means this could have been happening for anywhere between a week and up to months. You need survivors to get reports.

“And while this is a popular place to breakthrough, most delvers on a day-to-day basis are dungeon farmers. They go in, hit up the arena, and leave.

“While the plants are interesting, it is the variant materials that make the most money and you see more of them in the arena than any other floor.”

Jason, “Fair enough, now is there anything else we need to go over?”

The bigfoot lady shrugs, “Honestly? We went over more than I have with almost everyone else. Though that is because you got to the point quickly and I had time to fill. Even now, you’re leaving early compared to most of my other interviews. If only all of them would be this easy.”

Jason nods, “Then I’ll take my leave. Have a nice day.”

The bigfoot guild official nods and then starts to fill out a bunch of different forms at a shocking speed. Jason, not wanting to get caught up in any paperwork, beats a hasty retreat. Though this does leave him with a question of what to do.

She hadn’t exactly confirmed that it would be the same thing on their next delve. On the other hand, she hadn’t denied it and seemed to be a bit limited on what she could say. That meant Jason had a good bit of time on his hands and nothing to spend it on.

Well, not nothing. In fact, as he makes his way back to his inn room, a smile takes over his face. Now was the perfect time to cultivate outside of NeoRealm. He could also try some of that in game.

The only problem is that Jason has reached somewhat of a bottleneck. Not a System based one either, but rather a natural one. How can he tell?

Simple, his cultivation skill isn’t at some even number. Though calling it a bottleneck isn’t entirely correct, either. He could just keep cycling his Energy until it reached some critical mass and the System congratulated him on it.

That wasn’t his goal, though. Jason wanted to replace the System’s lines with his own. So irl cultivation it is, at least until he is in a place to settle down. Good thing that is exactly the kind of thing they plan on doing next. For now, Jason can only leave a note for Courtney with everything he learned and log out.

Though he doesn’t directly jump from the game to irl. First, he pays a little in his personal room so that he has a timer synced to when Rosha can return. Just a gold, anyone can afford or so says the marketing material around this feature when it was released a little over a hundred years ago.

About the only thing that kept people from really complaining, is that there was nothing to stop you from syncing up outside of the game without the feature. This just made it a lot easier to handle. Jason shakes his head as he leaves VR for what will be the longest stretch in a while.

Is what he’d like to say, but Jason isn’t going to jinx it. They still haven’t beaten the dungeon so it is always possible that they end up with time on their hands again. Not like they are in the middle of anything time sensitive right now.

The group isn’t impinging on someone else’s hospitality and they aren’t in the middle of the wilderness. Sure, the inn rooms cost a bit of money, but that amount is basically pocket change at this point. Mostly because the inns are more like big storage lockers.

After all, most adventurers are going to be spending their nights in the dungeon. Sure, the rooms aren’t quite capsule hotel levels of cramped, but mostly because they have to cater to multiple species, some of which are big. Though not too big, as anything falling too far out of the norm like a naga will need to find more specialized inns.

Jason cracks open his capsule and sighs. So much time and yet so little. The five times difference has really thrown his expectations out of whack. He shakes his head and stands up, no time to waste.